Manchester City traveled to theKing Power Stadium to take on Leicester City in the Quarter Final of the Capital One Cup. With games coming thick and fast, City boss Manuel Pellegrini opted to change a few of the playing staff from the 6-3 win against Arsenal on Saturday. Joleon Lescott replaced Martin Demichelis in the center back position, and the midfield was all changed, moving from the four in midfield at home to Arsenal on the weekend to a five, with David Silva playing just behind the lone striker Edin Dzeko. Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia got the nod ahead of Yaya Toure, who was completely rested, and Fernandinho were on the bench.

Sergio Aguero is injured and wasn’t in contention, and so the Bosnian, Dzeko started alone up front with Alvaro Negredo on the bench. Stevan Jovetic was surprisingly absent from the lineup, and when visitors only named six, substitute rumors that he was once again injured spread across social media.

As you might expect, Manchester City had the better of the opening exchanges, with the best chances coming from Dzeko, a shot deflected wide, and then later Rodwell, who was through before having his shot saved by Kasper Schmeichel. Inside eight minutes, however, City was in the lead when Alex Kolarov scored a fantastic free kick from some distance out. That, plus the goal last week while captaining City in Munich, seems to indicate that the Serbian is enjoying his football a little bit more these days.

Just like last week, 10 minutes in, Manchester City lost another right back. Pablo Zabaleta was running for a long ball when he felt something go. He instantly stopped, turned and walked down the tunnel, leaving James Milner to cover until Dedryk Boyata was brought on. Manchester City looked nervous at the back; with Boyata, Kompany, Lescott and Kolarov guilty of being a little careless, it put Joe Hart under pressure, but the England No. 1 did well. At the other end, the visitors did threaten, but the Leicester keeper was excellent in dealing with everything sent his way.

Leicester gave the ball away in midfield five minutes before the half time whistle, and when the ball got to Milner, the pass was on for Dzeko, who doesn’t miss in this competition. IT was 2-0 to Manchester City at half time.

Dzeko made it 3-0 with the same combination of Milner to Dzeko. The move was made by Milner, who couldn’t be offside from a throw in getting behind the back line before laying the ball back to Dzeko, who rifled home. After that, their progression into the final four was assured and surely only a comeback of epic proportions would stop the Manchester City machine now. With Manchester City in full control, it was a surprise when Lloyd Dyer‘sshot beat Hart at the near post via a deflection, and with quarter of an hour to go in the game, Leicester felt that the tie was far from over.

However, that would be all they wrote and the Premiership side progressed at the expense of the hosts, who will surely have a good shot to be in the mix at the end of the season for promotion into the Premier League, when games like this one will come around every week.

Jason Bardwell is a Soccer writer for Rant Sports and The Sports Column. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy or on Facebook.

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